Alright, here we go! I won’t bore you with the usual boring details about the city that you can find on wiki or lonely planet. Beijing has been a city for roughly 2500 years, but it wasn’t anything special before the Mongols or Kublai Khan because the center of power has always been in the center of China such has Chang An or Loa Yang.
Beijing didn’t really become Beijing with the infamous Forbidden City and the Temple of Heaven until the Ming Dynasty or around 1400. The Manchus that overthrew the Mings decided to not to mess with a good thing when they see it, and we have the Beijing today.
Now with the cliff notes version about the background of the City out of the way, let’s focus on what you need to know when and if you want to visit the place. Most of the places of interest that you want to visit are left by the 3 Dynasties I mentioned I above. But the most important thing is to get your bearings. You need to know where you are before you know where you are going, right?
Here is an easy reference, imagine Beijing as a giant castle with 5 walls and you’ll get the picture. But now imagine the walls have been demolished and replaced with giant free ways and you’ll get it right. These freeways are what we called Ring Roads. First Ring Road, Second Ring Road, etc. They go from inside out, just like a castle would.
Most things of interest(like shopping districts) are focused on old gates of the walls that enters or leaves the city (which makes a lot of sense if you think about it) . Most of the Tourist attractions that you want to see are within the Second Ring Road. If you can get a place within that square, getting around is easy and you can probably see most of what you want to see.
Don’t expect the Chinese maps you buy on the news stands to make sense, even if it’s labeled with English. They are littered with Pingying names for places, and can be down right out of date.
Here is a “interactive” (it doesn’t work, typical when you deal with official Chinese government stuff) map from the official Beijing Olympics website. It’s useless because it doesn’t have enough relevant labels, but it should give you a basic idea about the 5 ring roads.
Beijing has 8 urban districts, but most of the time, you don’t really need to know more than 3 or 4. Here they are in order of importance (to a visitor):
Xicheng District (西城区: Xīchéng Qū)
Chaoyang District (朝阳区: Cháoyáng Qū)
Haidian District (海淀区: Hǎidiàn Qū)
Dongcheng District (东城区: Dōngchéng Qū)
Xuanwu District (宣武区: Xuānwǔ Qū)
Shijingshan District (石景山区: Shíjǐngshān Qū)
Fengtai District (丰台区: Fēngtái Qū)
The links are courtesy of answers.com, since I was too lazy to type them out and if you wanted to know more, you can check it out there.
There are a few neighborhoods that is probably a must for most visitors. I’ll deal with the main attractions later. Here we go:
- Wangfujing 王府井
- Xidan 西单
- Yayuncun 亚运村
- Zhongguancun 中关村
- Guomao 国贸
- Wudaokou 五道口
Wangfujing is the quintessential shopping district in Beijing for the 25-45 and middle to upper class. If your image of China is still from the Cold War, go here. Oriental Plaza and the New World mall here pretty much covers all the second tier brand shops with a few first tier brands mixed in between. Chinese pop stars shops here, but it’s unlikely any will be recognized by any non-Chinese. There is also the only official government sectioned street stall food street here. Take pictures of the scorpions, sea horses, and silk cocoons here, while the braver souls can try the food to their large intestine’s dismay. It can be reached by Subway. It has the best foreign language book store in Beijing. Food here(that ain’t served from a street stall) aren’t bad. There are more, but I’ll get to it later.
Xidan is the second quintessential shopping district in Beijing, but this is for the young and not so rich type (14-24, counting allowance money type). If you want to oogle young girls of any kind in Beijing, go here. It also has the biggest book malls in town. They have a lot of English Text books for cheap. (35.00RMB for one, anyone?) This place covers all the second to third tier western brands plus all the funky but horribly expensive/crappy in terms of price and quality Chinese brands. There are no real food here, since it’s all filled by food courts and chained restaurants. Be warned, this place gets VERY busy during weekends. It is a subway station name, just get off when they tell you to.
Yayuncun or Asian Games Village, soon to be Olympics Games Village. This is where the bird nest and the giant fish bowl is. Traffic used to suck until they finished the subway line 5. I lived here for 2 1/2 years, and I’ll post the pictures of the changes of this place later. There aren’t a lot of attraction here for visitors, even though the real estate surrounding this whole area has gone bananas ever since they decided to put the bird nest here. Don’t bother getting a place here if you are here for the games. Most of the venues are spread all over town. Note: As far as I know, there is only one Starbucks near the stadium, and it’s at the 5th street Mall, which is 15 mins drive with no traffic and 30 mins walk.
Chongguancun or the Beijing “silicon Valley”. This is where all the high tech companies and the big electronic malls are. Come here to look if you like, make sure you bargain hard for the prices. There is no easy way to reach this place, and that has been a point of contention for quite a lot of workers here. As you can imagine, the rent is expensive around here.
Guomao or the International Trade Center. This is the old standby. All old/veteran China hands/expats got their start here at 80s, because this was the only place to stay and apply for a business license address. China World Hotel was where most international delegation stayed along with the western journalists. 30-65 and Rich is the audience here. All the top tier brands are here. Gucci, Prada, LV, and etc. Expect the snob from both sides. It also has an ice rink that is closest to town. It is directly connected to a subway station. There are a few interesting places to go outside the giant complex, but that’s another section. A lot of decent restaurants here, and with the price to match. This is also close to the old embassy compounds.
Wudaokou will probably be the new Wanfujing + Xidan. It’s college town, with quite a few big internet companies as anchors. There are lots of young and hip things/people here. Koreans have a huge influence in this neighborhood. The food is decent and cheap (student price). You can see a lot of expats working and studying here. If you are studying Chinese in Beijing, this is where you are most likely to be. The rent here is Atrocious. Expect funky and lots of people trying to practice their English with you. Crowded. It is accessible with a Skytrain station.
I hope you enjoyed that as well as it has proven helpful to you.
